Retail stores today, especially supermarkets, compete fiercely to attract customers to their stores. One mode of attraction is via savings offered to customers in the two areas which are valued highly by most: time and money.
Most modern retail stores today use point of sale (POS) systems for providing customers with better, faster service. A POS system generally has one or more automated check-out terminals which is capable of sensing and interpreting the bar code printed on each item of merchandise to be checked out. Contained in the bar code is the item's Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) code. Each of the check-out terminals is connected to a computer which processes the SKU information. The computer's database includes a list of items of merchandise in the store, an SKU for each of these items, and various types of information, including pricing and inventory information, associated with each SKU. When a customer is ready to make a purchase, the store clerk simply uses an automated terminal to sense the bar code on each of the customer's selections. The computer interprets the SKU contained in the bar code, looks up the price for each item, and keeps a running total of the purchase.
Savings in money are offered to customers by the stores through lower prices on particular items of merchandise. To inform customers of such sales items, stores advertise through direct mail, radio, television, and/or newspapers, and often offer coupons for taking advantage of the promotional items. Furthermore, within the store itself, signs on shelves and on shopping carts, as well as bold pricing indicators on the products for sale, aim to catch a customer's attention and cause him or her to purchase the sales products.
The existing systems and programs designed to enable a customer to save time and money, however, leave a lot to be desired. For instance, although POS systems aid customers to speed the checkout process, they do not help reduce time during, or even before the shopping process begins. At home, customers often spend valuable time in preparing for the next shopping visit. For example, before going shopping, customers often investigate what items need to be replenished and what new items need be purchased. Many customers also spend time making shopping lists based on those investigations.
Once in the store, a customer continues to spend a considerable amount of time trying to locate the items that need to be purchased. Although in many supermarkets, signs throughout the store give customers a general indication as to the location of various categories of products, these signs fail to give customers precise location and direction information of specific products. Thus, many customers will roam the aisles in trying to locate the items he or she wants to purchase.
Customers, moreover, often fail to obtain the full benefit of the savings offered by a store. Despite the advertisements and signs within the store, it is not uncommon for a customer to walk by a sales item without realizing that it is on sale. Even if a customer does attempt to purchase an item advertised as being on sale, when the item is scanned during check-out, the price charged to the customer will sometimes not reflect the sales price and will go by unnoticed by the customer.
Therefore, there is a need for a shopping system which will aid customers to save time and money during shopping. Such system should give directions to the customer on items to purchase based on the customer's current location, and give suggestions on promotional items and items that the customer may need to replenish.